'08 - '11 P-bass Pickups

[bassdude51]

Some have been asking about the "raised A magnet pole" on the '57 reissue P Bass. Fender doesn't offer that pickup by itself like the '62 reissue pickup.

But, doesn't S. Duncan offer an Antiquity I P Bass pickup with the raised A magnet pole?

I agree that the amount of replacement P pickups is just way too much! Every pickup winder has his own thinking or idea on how to do it.

I bought a Rio Grande Vintage Tall Boy P pickup about 2 years ago and I've never gotten around to installing it! Geeezzzzzsss! The bobbin on it is spaced wider so that the copper windings are wound thinner and closer to the magnet poles (since there's more space for winding). I am very curious to hear how it sounds but don't have the ambition to install it yet. Don't we wish pickups could be removed and installed without removing the strings?

I am kind of skeptical about all of these pickup winders and their "magic and fairy dust". Fiber board, copper wire, magnets and wax potting. Winders do not make these items but buy them from suppliers. So, what's the "magic"?

Sure, there are variations. Windings can be tight or loose. The wire can have this or that insulation. The windings can be scattered or evenly wound. The magnets can have x, y or z strength or have this or that diameter or length. And, the little variations are unlimited. But ultimately, pickups are bobbin material, copper wire, magnets. Some how we are lead to believe that winder's have some kind of special magic that they impart to their pickups. Hummm, I don't know. I'm pretty skeptical.

Employees for Duncan, Fralin, etc wind the pickups, not Seymour or Lindy, etc personally. It's a name on a product.

Duncan's SPB1 was supposed to be an exact copy of a pre-CBS P Bass pickup. Then, he comes out with the Antiquity II P Bass pickup which is supposed to be exactly like a pre-CBS P Bass pickup and cost double the SPB1! Well, which one is a copy of a pre-CBS? This pickup business thing gets very annoying!

A StewMac article mentioned that Fralin used to use a mixture of 80% paraffin and 20% bee wax for potting. Now, he's switched to 100% paraffin because bee wax causes a pickup to sound a bit darker. So, does that mean that older Fralin pickups with 80/20 wax are not up to par with his newer pickup that are 100% paraffin? Do I need to replace my old Fralin P Bass pickup with one of his newer ones because he's changed his potting formula? "Oh my!" "What should I do?"

All my opinion on this pickup thing and who am I?

Any comments on the Rio Grande Vintage Tall Boy P pickup?

 

[snowtraveler65]

Thanks. Just trying to get it all straight. This '11 is the newest MIA Fender I've ever owned. The most recent I have after that is an '83. The pickup in that is just fine, but '83 was an awfully long time ago and I can't keep track of the forty-leven different models and sub-models that Fender is hawking now. The new bass is an American Special Precision: good bones, crappy hardware and, apparently, a mediocre pickup.

The '62RI p'up seems to get a lot of love here on TB, so I'll probably just throw one of those in it and call it done. There are so many P pickups on the market I could wind myself up into option overload... but life is short.

Seeing that you have an American Special... There are differences between the Special and the Standard. Pick-ups, hardware, tone circuit, neck and body wood. The hardware on the Special isn't as beefy as you have already onbserved. The neck on the special is also slimmer with a different trussrod. Special has the "greasebucket" tone circuit. Not entirely sure what's different about that but it does give a different tone. So, if the post you read was in reference to a Standard, it would not really apply to the bass you have. Who knows what rig that guy was playing through? That makes a difference too. Lot's of good suggestions about p-up upgrades here. Duncan, Bartolini, Aguilar and others all have good options. Read up on them and see what will seem to give you the sound you're looking for.